EA Sports titles experiencing pre-order softness on current-gen

Pre-orders for EA Sports' signature sports titles are experiencing soft pre-orders for current-gen systems, but according to brand president Peter Moore this is "as planned" and "as anticipated."

During EA's financial call yesterday, Moore acknowledged the lower-than-usual pre-orders, but attributed it to consumer interest in next-gen hardware. He believes that pre-orders for the current-gen versions of EA's sports titles will pick up as soon as consumers realize their may not be enough Xbox One and PS4 units to fulfill launch demand.

"We're seeing softness in particular on our key sports titles on current-gen pre-orders," Moore said," I think consumers anticipate getting the new hardware. We certainly came out of E3 with renewed enthusiasm for new hardware, and I think that's been reflected in current-gen pre-orders."

One particular sports game immune to the transitional period seems to be FIFA 14, however. Moore noted that EA continues to see "great anticipation for that around the world" -- not a surprising realization given the $70 million in digital revenue netted by FIFA 13 last quarter.

"I think pre-orders will start to come in late as consumers start to realize that there may be not enough hardware to go around for every consumer in the world to buy a next-gen piece of hardware, but this is as planned and as anticipated."

Moore concluded: "I do expect to see some pickup as we get closer to launch."

Madden NFL 25 and FIFA 14 are due out on both current- and next-gen consoles, but the current-gen versions will be out much sooner than the versions on Xbox One and PS4, putting consumers in a very difficult position when deciding which version to get. In an attempt to boost consumer excitement for current-gen sports titles, EA has announced that both Madden NFL 25 and FIFA 14 will allow players to transfer Ultimate Team items from Xbox 360 to Xbox One or PS3 to PS4, while retaining those items in the current-gen version as well.